You Won't Believe What People Would Do for Lower Healthcare Costs

Toilet-bowl data collection could be in our future.

Today in "people agree to the darndest hypothetical things" news, we have a survey conducted by Intel and Penn Schoen Berland. Designed to act as a barometer of receptiveness to technology innovations in healthcare, the results are certainly interesting... if you consider toilet-bowl data collection interesting.

More than 70 percent of respondents would be okay with toilet sensors, prescription bottle sensors, or swallowed monitors (!) collecting personal data. Over half of people surveyed said they would trust a test they administered to themselves as much or more than if a doctor did it. And—here's the kicker—about 30 percent of respondents said they believed they could perform their own ultrasounds.

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Now we're not saying these findings are going to become reality, but the survey definitely brings to light the drastic measures people seem willing to take if it meant saving on healthcare costs. For all the current anxiety about our ever-eroding privacy, 80 percent of people said they would be totally fine with sharing their health information anonymously if it meant spending less at the doctor. We're still not sure if we'd want that information to be shared from our toilets, though.